It was another glorious and sunny morning but there was no early walk today; we were both a bit too tired. Our initial plan was to visit Cefalu, a seafront town about a one hour drive east further along the coast, but this didn’t eventuate. Our rental car was available for pick up from the airport at 1pm and this didn’t really leave enough time. The extra time this morning was well spent by Mark as he went to the barber downstairs from our apartment and he scored a great haircut. After that, it was back to the offering of the Hop On Hop Off bus with a visit out to Monreale Cathedral.

Monreale township is located about a 30 minute drive inland and on the slope of Monte Caputo. The trip alone was almost worth it just to get the great views back out across Palermo; you could easily see how Palermo sits in the depression of a bowl and is surrounded by mountains.

Monreale Cathedral was founded in 1172 by William II and is regarded as one of the great sights of Norman Sicily, which would help to explain the large number of tourist groups; the place was packed! William II had built this Cathedral to rival that of Palermo and he did a rather good job. The inside of the Cathedral glistened with the most beautiful gold and ceramic tiles and was rather breathtaking. The tombs of William I and William II can be found on the right hand side of the sanctuary and the wife and young sons of William I can be found on the left.

We only had an hour to spend visiting the Cathedral as we had limited options of transport back down to Palermo. I would highly recommend a visit to this Cathedral if you’re ever in the region but do allow a bit more time than we did!

The bus dropped us back into Palermo near 1 pm and we walked back to the apartment down via Vittoria Emanuele  with a stop-off for a bite to eat before Mark set out for the airport to collect the car.

It was around 4pm before we headed back out and we spent the time doing the other loop of the Hop On Hop Off bus; this loop was up around the northern part of Palermo. The best part about this journey was being dropped off in another part of the city and winding our way on a different route. We found ourselves winding through the busy market streets of Mercato del Capo and then Mercato Storico which gave us plenty to look at.  Mark thought it was on par with Poppies Lane in Bali for a lot of the stuff on offer. that was until we hit a few cute cafes and wine bars where we stopped for our evening aperitivo. I at first thought my Limincello Spritz was a bit light on with Prosecco but on walking home I realized they must have made up for that with Limoncello!

It was our last night in Palermo and we decided to dine in. We depart Palermo in the morning and make our way south to Agrigento.